Robert Freedman: Great Form in Longform

By Susan Sebastian

Robert Freedman was recently nominated for an Emmy for Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows (based on the memoir by Lorna Luft). He has also written – or co-written – a number of MOWs and miniseries, including What Makes a Family, Murder at 75 Birch* and Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella**.

What excites you about the medium? Why write for TV?

Studio features, in general, tend to be high concept. In television, there's been more of an opportunity to write a "small feature" – by that I mean a personal, character-driven piece, or a story with a social or political agenda. Frankly, one of the biggest rewards for working in longform television has been that the odds of getting a movie made were better. I wrote half a dozen features in a row, and none of them were produced. But as soon as I got into television, I started to see my work realized on the screen. Which is, of course, addictive. And having your work produced, with actual actors and a director, allows you to learn your craft. I'd like to think that, over the years, I've become a better writer, and it's because television and its insatiable need for programming gave me that opportunity.

Network versus cable – what are the pros and cons of each?

There's been a shifting. The network MOW has recently become an endangered species. The networks have ceded the genre to cable. The end result may be that while networks make fewer movies, they will make better ones. A writer can't use the same kind of language on network TV, but that can force writers working on network projects to be more creative. Cable seems to be able to take more risks, but restrictions are put on the writer based on the niche audience of cable outlets, too. So there are challenges with both.

How has today's climate of political correctness affected what you write and what we see on TV? Do you have less creative freedom because of it?

Sometimes what people call "political correctness" is really just a matter of exercising good taste and judgment and being sensitive to the huge impact television has on viewers, especially young viewers who, for better or worse, take their cues from what they see on TV. It may be "politically correct" to depict gays and lesbians as healthy, normal citizens, for example, but it's also true and sends a positive message that is not lost on the audience.

Take smoking as an example. It's politically incorrect today to show people smoking, yet if it's right for the character, as I writer, I hate being censored. You don't want to glamorize smoking, but you still need to be true to the character. So you use discretion, and you ask yourself how necessary it is. In something I wrote recently, the very chic, sophisticated lead character dies of lung cancer. If we're not allowed to show her smoking like a chimney throughout the movie, I'll pull my hair out. Sometimes you can be too politically correct for your own good.

They say one should write what they're passionate about. But often, the content of a particular episode or movie is presented to a writer. How do you work up a passion for that assignment?

I took a lot of assignments when I was starting out, and I used to wonder if I wasn't being true to my voice as a writer. But I found, over the years, that I did indeed have a voice, and that voice was informing everything I wrote. Ultimately, whatever your job, you have to work up the passion for it, find something in it that you connect to, or you'll never be able to write it. Ultimately, I've become passionate about everything I've written, even if the springboard was paying my rent or taking an opportunity to get ahead. Eventually, I was able to be picky about the projects I choose and for the most part now I only write what I'm passionate about – which, of course, brings its own set of problems and doubts, if you're as neurotic as I am.

Now that you've got your story, and you're passionate about it, how do you overcome obstacles in telling the best story? Obstacles like pressure from the networks, studios, advertisers or the government?

I haven't personally felt a "corporate interference." However, recently, I did hear of a writer who pitched a project and, based on the subject matter, was told it would be "difficult to find sponsors for that." So obviously this is a concern, and has been since sponsors were invented.

Is TV a reflection of society or an influence on it?

It's reciprocal. It both influences and reflects society.

What's next? Where's TV going?

Boundaries will continue to be pushed. The challenge for longform TV is to make better movies to get the audience back. Because the networks have cut back on their "movie nights," it means that it's now the quality of the movie project rather than quantity. That can't be a bad thing.
 
*Murder at 75 Birch, Teleplay by Daniel J. Levine and Robert L. Freedman, based on the book by Richard T. Pienciak
**Teleplay by Robert L. Freedman, music by Richard Rodgers, book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II